Monthly Archives: March 2014

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I had some not used screenshots from the past months who I intended to use in blog posts who never were made, mainly Now Playing ones, but who as time passed weren’t as relevant anymore. That is, until I found them again and realized that I haven’t made much progress in those games since these pictures were taken.

First up we have Zelda II: Adventure of Link. I have no trouble clearing the first dungeon in Parapa Desert, and I have even managed to get back the trophy of Town of Ruto in that dark cave without the candle, and I would actually consider that quite hardcore.

But I haven’t accomplished more than that as it turned out the in-game battery was dead as a doornail and I lost all my progress up until that point. This elicited a classic rage response as expected from such a dire situation:

I managed to reach that point again without too much trouble and even replaced the battery for a new one, but then I got hold of The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition in a Salvation Army store in Canada. Now I’m using that one for my Zelda II needs, and I have to say that even though the game doesn’t use the traditional LoZ game style I still find it very enjoyable and I always want to play more to progress in that game.

Then I played some Pinball for the NES. It’s a basic pinball game that, while enjoyable, is just that and will turn boring quite fast. I still find it enjoyable in short bursts and think it’s a decent pinball game considering how early it was made for the system. I even managed to reach this nifty mini game, which is a weird combination of Pinball and Breakout, with a dash of Donkey Kong. And you gotta love those penguins, (wo)man.

And last but not least I played myself some Super Mario Bros Crossover with Samus (one of my favorite characters in that game) and managed to save her baby Metroid. That’s such a nice and heart warming ending!

Gameboy Carrying Case, Game & Watch Gallery and Wario Blast:

I got these from Al’s Video Games and Music in Seattle. I’ve been looking for such a case for a long time and Wario Blast has been on my list too, I wrote about them here. Both games are very fun and well worth what I gave for them, and I’m showing off the case on our bookshelf at home. I think I got the case for half of what it costs around here.

I walked into a Salvation Army store in Vancouver (I know, on my vacation, right?) as they’re a good source of finding video games for a decent price. I look through their selection and there honestly weren’t any good video games on display… until I followed one of the basic rules of game collectors: check the DVD and Blu Ray department!

Lo and behold! They had a good selection of Gamecube games…

My hands started to shake. I sweated profusely. They had The Legend of Zelda: Collectors Edition there for 5 bucks. Quickly, to not someone else get it, I grabbed it and held on to it tightly. Then I saw Luigi’s Mansion… and then Mario Party 4, both also for the same price each! And then I threw in Pac Man for good measure.

I honestly had to take a few deep breaths because of the adrenaline that coursed through me, it took a long time for me to finally understand that I actually had found these games for such a good price, I mean, I didn’t even expect to find anything in there. I paid for them and then when I exited the place I wanted to shout my lungs out, out of sheer excitement and happiness of my once in a lifetime find.

Being the nice guy I am I gave my brother Mario Party 4, as I already have the 5th game in that series.

Zendoku, Aliens Infestation and Blue Dragon Plus:

The first game, Zendoku, I bought from the discount bins of Future Shop in Victoria, Canada. It only cost a couple of bucks and looked interesting enough to warrant a purchase. It seems to basically be a Sudoku game with action elements.

The second game, Aliens Infestation, I bought from Walmart. It looks like an awesome platformer where you control a few guys wandering about killing off aliens. I had to get it since it looked really interesting, and in these days where Internet tells you everything there is to know about a game, it feels good to take a chance on a title that looks promising, without having your experience being tainted by reviews of people who hold a higher standard for the games they use to play.

The third game, Blue Dragon Plus, is the sequel to Blue Dragon, another game designed by Akira Toriyama. The first game has gotten good reviews, and I’d have gotten it if I had an Xbox… which I don’t. It’s a strategy RPG which seems pretty fun, but I haven’t played enough of it to have a full opinion about it. I bought it from a Gamestop in Victoria.

I’m going to mention three things about the text on the back of the box of Mega Man II for Gameboy:

1) That has to be one of the worst blurbs I’ve ever seen for a game. “It’s Quint’n time!” I guess they’re referring to the difficult and mighty boss Quint who you face off against after having defeated all Robot Masters. He’s not difficult, and I’d hardly call him mighty. What if they wrote “It’s Bowser’n Time!” at the back of a Mario game. Am I missing the intended pun in that sentence?

2) The word demented, as in “the demented Dr. Wily”. I’m aware that it’s a word used to describe someone crazy or evil in the English language, but I can’t help thinking of the other kind of dementia when reading that sentence:

Now where did I put that device I built to destroy Mega Man? Where is it? Where am I? What’s my name?

3) The back of the box describes the Robot Masters as cyborgs, As far as I know they’re not cyborgs at all, they’re purely machines. There are no biological components in their design. That’s why I find it that statement interesting.

The Nintendo Headquarters saw Luigi as equal to Mario… he had the same design only with swapped colors (which look way cooler than his new ones, in my opinion!). They’re the same, they’re men of the same worth.

That’s until they chose to have him go second, and name him Luigi after “Ruigi” which in Japanese means “similar”. Then they swapped his colors, put him in second place, changed his design over the years to show us that he’s not number one. Even his victory cry after a race won in the Mario Kart series is “who’s number one now!”. This points to his feeling of insecurity, which is also explored in the “Mario & Luigi” games. He got the personality of someone insecure, the second best. But then again, when fooled into believing he’s Mario in the Mario & Luigi series, he’s physically got the same potential and is able to achieve the same things. Basically we have in Luigi a man stunted by his bad self esteem.

And that explains why they created “Year of Luigi” in 2013. They knew what they’d done. They’d stripped a man out of his confidence and feeling of self-worth. By doing this big thing I think they gave some of it back to Luigi, restoring him to his former grandeur as the one who took Mario’s place when he’d fail, that same man on that lunch box from the past. Just look at that confident face. Who couldn’t trust that guy to save Mushroom Kingdom?

I recieved a coupon code for the 3DS Virtual Console since I subscribed to notifications and news and whatnot rhtough the Nintendo Network, and one day I checked my E-mail to see that they’d kindly given me a code to redeem to get Super Mario Bros. Deluxe for the Gameboy Color in my 3DS.

Having entered the code I’m able to download the game. Yay!

Downloading the game… waiting eagerly for it…

Voila! Le game is downloaded and ready to play! And man is it fun to have on the 3DS on the go!

This time in Retro Games Hunt I found stuff from three different platforms!

GAME had a 25% sale on all their Used games and I made sure to grab a couple of them while I was there, and then I also recieved a longed for box… in a box.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

This NES title is a really fun game, and is based on Gizmo’s adventures and mishaps in the second Gremlins movie. You control Gizmo and battle your way through the office building in the movie and you can equip him with different weapons, many which are seen in the movie as well. There also are boss battles based on all the different freakazoid versions of the Gremlins that were produced when they wreaked havoc in the lab.

And remember, when out of stuff to offer a person or another creature, you can always offer diseases.

“I could get you diseases.”

Geist:

I already have this one, which I consider a hidden gem on the Gamecube, but I got it for a veeeery good price for my brother.

Gameboy Color Box:

I got this box for a very good price brand new, though it didn’t contain inlets, manuals or the system. That was fine with me since I had all of those and only lacked the box for a complete set. Incidentally this box is for my favorite Gameboy Color color (haha) and I even got to fold it myself! That explains how I got a box in a box this week.

I got my S-video adapter for the Nintendo 64, which means that I can change from standard Composite video to what’s the best thing for the PAL N64 system: S-video. The difference isn’t huge between this and RGB but still noticeable according to most sources.

I quickly noticed that the image got black and white when I connected the Sound output cable into the adapter. This was quickly solved by pulling it out a little bit and presto! I had both sound and a markedly improved image to enjoy.

Standard Composite cable

S-video cable

S-video Cable

Unfortunately I forgot to grab a pic with the Composite cable of the gameplay, but the intro screen shows off both the 3D, sprite and texture aspects of the game so I hope that’ll do. I’m pleased with the improvement and I’d say that this is a cheap way to make your older consoles much more visually appealing, it’d cost about 10 dollars per cable and you’d be set to go, even on new flatscreen TV’s.

The reason why the image is still blurry is because the N64 had some kind of blur filter that was meant to make the graphics better. While it looked better on most standard CRT TVs it looks dated when Compared to the modern sharpness of video output. So this is basically what you get if I’m correct.